Officials are asking beachgoers to stay away from a 35- to 40-foot fin whale that washed ashore on Torrance Beach Saturday night and later died.
“Due to its size and location, it is expected that the whale will remain on the beach while emergency services create a plan to remove it,” the Los Angeles County Lifeguard’s group said in a post on X. “If you are in the area, please give the animals and rescuers plenty of room to work.”
Lifeguards spotted the whale at 6pm on Saturday, located between Redondo Beach and Malaga Cove. The Marine Mammal Center and National Fisheries Service later determined the whale was dead.
The cause is not yet determined, but fin whales are particularly sensitive to collisions with shipss, according to marine mammal experts. Warming ocean waters are also disrupting food supplies, while entanglement with commercial fishing lines is another danger to whales.
Fine whales are the second largest animals on earth after the blue whale. Like blue whales are fin whales of the ballwith two blowholes and, instead of teeth, hundreds of rows of baleen plates made of keratin. The plates, arranged in a row, are used to strain food from water — mainly small fish and plankton.